Teaching

My primary teaching interests are in American institutions and political methodology, specifically: state goverment, political parties, legislative politics, and political networks. Most recently, I taught an undergraduate seminar on U.S. state politics at Notre Dame (Spring 2020). The syllabus for this course – along with unredacted student evaluations – can be found below. During Fall 2019, I was the teaching assistant for two, graduate-level quantitative methodology courses, Math for Political Scientists in the Department of Political Science and Quantitative Methods I in the Keough School of Global Affairs. In that semester, I concurrently served as the statistcal consultant for all graduate students and faculty in both departments. In prior semesters, I’ve led weekly discussion classes for introductory-level courses across a broad range of political science subfields, including American politics, comparative politics, and international relations. I’ve participated in extensive pedagogical training, ranging from short workshops offered by the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning at Notre Dame to a longer, more intensive course on teaching screen literacy.

In addition to course instruction, I’ve also mentored several undergraduate students by employing them as research assistants. If you are an undergraduate student interested in working as a research assistant and/or learning more about the political science research process, please contact me directly.

Below are descriptions for courses I’ve instructed with syllabi and unredacted student evaluations (linked).


State Government & Politics Spring 2020 syllabus, evaluations

Although the majority of American policymaking happens at the subnational level, most of us know very little about what happens in our state capitals. This is concerning given the size and scope of state governments in the U.S., which tax and spend in the billions of dollars and create policies that affect our lives in very tangible ways. For example: California, if it were a country, would have the 5th largest economy in the world, with its $3 trillion GDP exceeding that of the UK, India, France, and Italy. Still, our schools, media, and popular political discourse focus overwhelmingly on national and international politics, minimizing the importance of subnational government.

This course examines the politics and policymaking of state governments in the U.S., focusing on the offices (such as governors and legislators) and intervening institutions (e.g. campaigns & elections, interest groups, and direct democracy) within them. This class is structured to familiarize students with the unique governmental challenges faced by American states, as well as to provide them with the analytical insight and methodological capabilities to critically engage with political questions in the future.